The City That Immigrants Built — and Still Keep Alive

When Zohran Mamdani stood before a roaring crowd on election night and declared,

“New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant,”
he wasn’t speaking in metaphor. He was naming a truth — one you can measure in numbers, taste in food, hear in accents, and see in every subway car at dawn.

A City of Immigrants — Literally

According to the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, nearly 3.1 million New Yorkers — about 38% of the city’s total population — were born outside the United States.
That means every third person you pass on a crowded sidewalk once began life across an ocean.
The phrase is no hyperbole: this is simply who we are.

The City Runs Because They Do

Immigrants don’t merely live in New York — they keep it running:

They make up a large share of the city’s healthcare, food-service, transportation and building-services workforce, keeping hospitals, restaurants, subways and construction moving.
They contribute to the local economy in disproportionate measure: immigrant entrepreneurship, consumption and labour generate a substantial portion of the metro GDP.

Mamdani’s phrase “powered by immigrants” captures this: the engines of the city — invisible yet indispensable — hum with immigrant hands.

Entrepreneurs of Everyday Life

About half of all small businesses in New York City are owned or founded by immigrants. These are your neighbourhood grocers, your dry-cleaners, your diners, your barbers — the infrastructure of daily life.
They employ New Yorkers, anchor neighborhoods, and stabilise communities.
When Mamdani says New York is “led by an immigrant,” he signals a shift — recognition that leadership must reflect those who built the city.

The Moral of the City

Here’s the irony: the very people who sustain this metropolis often live on the edge of precarity — exploited labour, housing instability, language barriers.
Yet their labour still lifts skyscrapers, still fuels renewal, still carries the city forward.
Mamdani’s words are a call for acknowledgment, for justice, for inclusion:

New York isn’t just for immigrants — it belongs to them.
The city doesn’t just accept immigrants — it depends on them.

The Real Empire State

Empires rise on exploitation. Cities rise on solidarity.
And New York — for all its contradictions — is proof that from migration comes movement, from difference comes dynamism, and from the margins comes the majority.

So when Zohran Mamdani declared that “New York will remain a city of immigrants…the city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants…led by an immigrant” — he wasn’t simply describing the city.
He was reminding it of its soul.

Because truth be told: New York has always been theirs.

Sources:

NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs – Annual data on immigrant population
U.S. Census Bureau – American Community Survey
Migration Policy Institute – Immigrant workforce & economic contributions
NYC Department of Small Business Services – Immigrant-owned business report
Immigration Research Initiative – Economic impact of immigrants in NY metro
Guardian – full transcript of Mamdani victory speech

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